Theatrical appliance.



PATENTED JAN. 21, 1908. S. BIRNBAUM.

THEATRICAL APPLIANCE. APPLICATION FILED IEB.2,1907.

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PATENTED JAN. 21, 1908.

S. BIRNBAUM. THEATRIGAL APPLIANCE.

APPLICATION FILED PEB.2,1907.

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SAMUEL BIRNBAUM, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

THEATRICAL APPLIANCE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 21, 1908.

Application filed February 2. 1907- Serial No. 355351.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known thatI, SAMUEL BIRNBAUM, a citizen of the United States,residing in Boston, county of Sufiolk, and State of Massachusetts, haveinvented an Improvement in Theatrical Appliances, of which the followingdescription, in connection with the accompanying drawing, is aspecification, like letters on the drawing representing like parts.

This invention has for its object to provide novel means for producingillusory dramatic effects on a theatrical stage, and especially torepresent correctly and without any diminution of dramatic effect scenessuch, for instance, as involve a traveling object which in the course ofits journey is stopping more or less frequently and at different pointsalong its route. As an example, I would refer to the illustration on thestage of Paul Reveres ride to Lexington where the scenes as produced onthe stage would include a horseman riding and stopping at variousplaces.

Apparatus for producing on a stage the appearance of a traveling person,animal or vehicle, etc. are more or less commonly used in theaters, butso far as'I am aware in all such appliances no means are provided forbringing the horse or other traveling object to rest upon the stage inview of the audience. Usually the curtain is lowered before the journeyis completed, thus materially taking away from the dramatic effect ofthe scene.

According to my improvement, it is possible to bring the animal orvehicle to rest upon the stage in full view of the audience, and toagain start the animal or other traveling object on its journey withoutdetracting at all from the illusory effect.

I will first describe some embodiments of my invention and then pointout the novel features thereof in the appended claims.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a plan view of a portion of a theatricalstage showing one embodiment of my invention; Fig. 2 is a frontelevation of the curtain used in my apparatus Fig. 3 is a detailhereinafter referred to; Fig. 4 shows a different form of the invention;Fig. 5 shows a modified form of the curtain shown in Fig. 2.

Referring to Fig. 1, 3 is the stage of a theater, and 4 a tread mill orendless path, such as is commonly used in illustrating or exhibitinghorse races on the stage. In connection with this endless path, I use inthe present embodiment a curtain 5 which extends across it to the viewof the audience.

the stage and is herein shown as wound at each end upon rolls 6 so thatthe curtain may be advanced to present different portions of Thiscurtain is divided into sections 8 (as seen in Fig. 2, which is a frontview of a portion of said curtain), and each section is painted torepresent the background of a scene at one of the places where thetraveling object is to stop. These sections 8, which for convenience arecalled scenic sections, are preferably of a size to extend clear acrossthe stage so that when any one section is properly positioned, the scenepainted thereon represents the background of the scene exhibited on thestage. The scenic sections 8 of the curtain are separated from eachother-by a distance equal to substantially the width of the stage, andthe spaces between the sections may be merely white cloth thusconstituting plain sections, as shown in Fig. 2, or this space may beopen as seen in Fig. 5. These scenic sections 8 are to be used when thescene produced on the stage is a stationary or fixed scene, as will bethe case when the traveling object has halted in its journey. Inconnection with the curtain and tread mill, as above described, I employsome suitable means for giving the effect of moving scenerywhen theobject is supposed to be traveling, and at such times, the curtain 5 isadvanced so as to carry out from the view of the audience the scenicsections.

If the curtain 5 is of the form shown in Fig. 2 the advancing of thecurtain, as above described, will expose to the view of the audience theplain sections 80 while if the curtain is of the form shown in Fig. 5the advancing thereof will expose to the view of the audience an openspace 81 between the scenic sections.

The effect of moving scenery may be produced in various ways, such forinstance as by throwing onto the plain or unpainted sections 80 of thecurtain 5, or onto a supplemental curtain situated behind the curtain 5and which may be exposed through the open spaces 81 moving picturesprojected from a moving picture lantern 9, or by having an endlesspainted canvas 82, as shown in Fig. 4, which is situated behind thecurtain 5 and which can be seen through an open space 81, and which byits movement gives the effect of moving scenery.

In the embodiment of the invention shown in Fig. 1, the lantern isdesignated generally by 9, and it may be of any suitable type adapted tothrow on the curtain a moving scene. I prefer, however, that type oflantern in which a continuous film 31 is employed which carries thereonthe scene to be reproduced. By moving this film across the lantern andwinding it on one or the other roll 32, the moving picture effect can beproduced on the screen. As stated above, the screen onto which themoving pictures are projected by the lantern 9 may either be the plainsections of the curtain 5 between the scenic sections 8, or a separatecurtain behind the curtain 5 if said curtain 5 has open spaces 81between the scenic sections 8 as seen in Fig. 5.

In using the apparatus as thus described the horseman or other travelingobject is on the treadmill or endless path 4, and when the scenerequires that the object should be traveling, the curtain 5 is advancedto bring one of the spaces between the scenic sections 8 into view ofthe audience, and if this space is merely a white cloth, then thelantern 9 is operated to project on to this white cloth as a backgrounda moving scene representing the scenery past which the traveling objecton the treadmill 4 is supposed to be moving. If, however, the form ofcurtain shown in Fig. 5 is used the moving scene projected by thelantern 9 may be thrown onto a supplemental curtain behind the curtain 5through an open space 81. Or in lieu of the lantern an endlesscurtain82, see Fig. 4, on which the moving scene is painted may be placedbehind the curtain 5 to be seen through the open space 81 therein andthe effect of moving scenery may be effected by moving this endlesscurtain 82. I

WVith the lantern or its equivalent producing the moving scenery, andwith the horseman or traveling object seen in the act of traveling, theillusory effect of a traveling object is perfectly produced.

WVhen the play or scene requires that the traveling object should haltin its journey, then the curtain 5 is advanced to bring the properscenic section 8 into view of the audience, and the object on thetreadmill is brought to rest and the lantern 9 is shut off. There isthus. presented on the stage and without the necessity of lowering thecurtain a complete change of scene wherein the scene shown in thebackground is stationary and the traveling object has come to rest. Whenthe traveling object again resumes its j ourney, the curtain 5 is againadvanced to bring a vacant space in view and the lantern 9 set inoperation to produce the efiect of moving scenery and the object beginsto travel.

It is immaterial to my invention whether the moving pictures exhibitedby the lantern 9 are projected on to the vacant or unpainted portions ofthe curtain 5, or whether said curtain is cut away at points between thescenic sections 8 and the moving pictures exhibited on another curtainbehind the curtain 5.

The curtain 5 may be operated in any suitable way and to illustrate oneway I have shown the rolls 6 as geared together by gearing 11 and ashaft 10, so that one may be driven by the other and one of the rolls isdriven by a suitable shaft 12 which has thereon a gear 13 meshing with acorresponding gear on the roll 6. This shaft is to be operated by anattendant at the proper times to advance the curtain 5.

In order to still further carry out the illusory effect, I provide meansfor advancing across the stage or bringing to rest upon the stage atproper times objects representing trees, buildings, etc. which form partof the complete scene. These moving objects are located in front of thetread mill, that is, between the traveling object and the audience, andpreferably at different distances from the audience. In this way withthe back ground produced by the moving picture lantern and the movin ofthese objects across the stage between t e traveling object and theaudience, the traveling object may be represented as passing behindtrees or houses, or over bridges, etc.

In Fig. 3 I have illustrated at 17 one of these objects as representinga church. It is secured both at its top and bottom to an endless carrieror chain device 16, and is supported in proper position thereby, saidendless carriers extending clear across the stage, as plainly seen inFig. 1. The two endless chains may be connected together to be operatedin unison, thereby to move the object across the stage at the desiredspeed, and for this purpose I have herein shown each chain 16 as passingover a sprocket-wheel mounted on a shaft on which is secured anothersprocket-wheel, and the two sprocket-wheels 18 are driven by twosprocket-chains 19 and 20 from sprocket-wheels on a suitable drivingshaft 21 which may be operated by any suitable crank device 22. By thismeans an attendant can move the object or objects 17 across the stage atany desired speed or bring it to rest in any position on the stage.

The objects 17 of whatever nature are made so that they can bedetachably connected to the endless carriers 16 so that after any objecthas been carried across the stage it may be disconnected from thecarriers and other objects of different nature applied thereto.Obviously the objects which are carried by the chain 16 nearest to theaudience will be moved faster than those which are carried by the chainsfurthest from the audience, in order to preserve the proper illusoryeffect. In using my improved apparatus, so long as the traveling objecton the tread mill is represented as traveling, the

curtain 5 would be painted to represent the background of the scenes atthe various places where Paul Revere stopped on his journey toLexington, and the moving pictures exhibited by the lantern 9 would besuch as to exhibit on the unpainted portions of the screen 5 or theirequivalent the scenery passed by Paul Revere between his.

stopping places. The objects .17 would represent trees or specialbuildings.

The advantage gained in using the curtain 5 with the separated scenicsections for rep resenting on the stage the stationary scenes and othermeans, such, for instance, as the moving lantern for representing themoving scenes, is that a comparatively short curtain 5 will answer thepurpose, for it will be obvious that if not only the stationary scenes,but also the moving scenes were put on the curtain 5, the length of itwould be so great as to make its use impracticable. 1

From the above it will be seen that th separated scenic sections arepainted to represent different scenes of a continuous panoramic view,and that the scenes of the panoramic view which occur between thoseillus trated on the scenic sections are exhibited with a moving pictureeffect by some suitable means so that to the audience all. thesuccessive scenes of the continuous panoramic view are presented inregular order.

It will be seen that with my apparatus as above described, it ispossible to represent on the stage the complete journey of a travelerfrom one place to another with all its attendant change of scene withoutlowering the curtain, even though the representation includes thefrequent stopping and starting of the traveler during its journey.

I have not attempted to show herein all ways in which my invention maybe embodied, but have only shown the preferred embodiment thereof.

Having fully described my invention, What I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent-is:

1. In a stage appliance, the combination with an endless path, of acurtain having a plurality of separated scenic sections representingdifferent scenes of a complete panoramic view, and also having plainsections, means to bring the scenic sections successively intojuxtaposition to the endless path, and a moving picture machine toexhibit on the plain sections the scenes of the panorama which are notexhibited on the scenic sections.

2. In a device of the class described, the combination with an endlesspath, of a curtain behind the path comprising scenic sections separatedby plain sections, means to move said curtain longitudinally, and amoving picture lantern to project moving pictures on to the plainsections.

3. In an apparatus of the class described, the combination with anendless path of a curtain extending longitudinally thereof, andcomprising separate scenic sections, means to move the curtainlongitudinally, a moving picture lantern to project moving picturestoward the curtain, and means to move scenic objects longitudinally ofthe endless path and on the opposite side thereof from the curtain.

4. The combination with an endless path, of a curtain having scenicsections separated by intervening blank sections, means to move thecurtain to bring any desired section into juxtaposition with the endlesspath, and means to exhibit upon the blank sections scenes which arerelated to those exhibited on the scenic sections.

5. In a stage appliance, the combination with an endless path, of meanspresenting a plurality of scenic sections each showing different scenesof a panorama illustrating a certain event, means to bring the scenicsections successively into juxtaposition to the endless path, and amoving picture machine to exhibit the scenes of the panorama notexhibited on the scenic sections.

6. In a stage appliance, the combination with means presenting aplurality of scenic sections representing different scenes of apanoramic view, of means to bring said scenic sections into viewinregular order, and means separate from the scenic sections to exhibit inrapid succession and with a moving picture effect the scenes of thepanoramic view which occur between those illus trated on the scenicsections.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification, inthe presence of two subscribing witnesses.

SALIUEL BIRNBAUM.

Witnesses:

LOUIS 0. SMITH, BERTHA F. HEUSER.

